General Contractor of the Year 2012

Joeris General Contractors, Inc.

1390 E Bitters Road

San Antonio, Texas  78216

(210) 494 - 1638

 (Washington, D.C.) – Mayor Vincent C. Gray, The Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA) President Lynn Schubert, Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) Director Harold Pettigrew, and District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Terry Bellamy today announced the launch of the “Bond Your Business: Road Map to Success” Bonding Program, a new partnership designed to increase the competitiveness of District-based small businesses through bond readiness training.

“The District’s economy is fueled by small businesses and this partnership exemplifies our shared commitment to ensuring that our business community is offered the best available resources to lay a strong foundation and improve their capacity to grow and compete,” said Mayor Vincent C. Gray. “SFAA has been a recognized leader in the surety industry and we are very fortunate to have their expertise.” 

The “Bond Your Business” Initiative is developed from the SFAA’s Model Contractor Development Program® (MCDP), a series of workshops designed to educate small and emerging contractors on improving their bonding capacity.  The program will provide small businesses with assistance for qualifying in the surety market and gaining access to surety credit.  Bonding readiness helps small businesses secure surety bonds for construction projects, and includes workshops on accounting and financial management, insurance requirements, safety management, credit repair, cost estimating, and more. 

“DSLBD is committed to helping Certified Business Enterprises with competing for and winning work in the District,” said DSLBD Director, Harold Pettigrew. “It is critical for small businesses to access the capital they need and the bonding to compete on the many construction projects underway across our city.  Helping firms to navigate the process of becoming bond ready will further alleviate one of the biggest challenges facing small contractors.  The ‘Bond Your Business’ initiative will ensure that our firms are equipped with the tools necessary to be successful and help to further strengthen the District’s local economy.”

“The Surety & Fidelity Association of America is pleased to enter into this Agreement, which formalizes our ongoing efforts with the District of Columbia to make bonding more accessible to DC-based contractors,” said SFAA President Lynn Schubert.  “For the past several years, our Model Contractor Development Program® successfully has been implemented throughout the country, including in D.C., and these initiatives have resulted in more than $400 million in bonding to small and emerging contractors.  We are excited about our partnership with the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development and the District Department of Transportation and look forward to continued success under this Program.”

“Bond Your Business” consists of seven highly interactive classroom workshops that will provide a range of information related to improving the company’s operations.  Each workshop features presentations by professionals in the field, and will consist of one-on-one interactions between business owners and surety bond producers and underwriters, during which they address issues in the application process that could pose challenges to the underwriting of a bond for small businesses.  DSLBD’s program will launch in March 2013, with a complimentary program administered by DDOT in the fall of 2013 for small businesses focused on construction opportunities in the transportation sector.

The deadline for the 2013 Bond Your Business program is March 21, 2013.  For more information on and how to apply for the Bond Your Business program, please visit www.dslbd.dc.gov.

American Subcontractors Association, Inc.
1004 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314-3588 • www.asaonline.com • (703) 836-3482 fax
 

NEWS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE Jan. 25, 2013
Contact: David Mendes, (703) 655-1954, dmendes@asa-hq.com

Subcontractors Celebrate Victory Limiting Risk-Shifting in Minnesota
ASA Asked Minnesota Supreme Court to Uphold State’s Anti-Indemnity Law

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a major victory sought by the American Subcontractors Association on behalf of Minnesota’s subcontractors, the state’s Supreme Court has affirmed limits on risk-shifting based on the state’s anti-indemnity law (Minn. Stat. §337.02).

On Jan. 23, 2013, the Supreme Court of Minnesota reversed an appeals court’s decision that allowed a general contractor to shift liability to a subcontractor for damage caused by a general contractor’s own direction of the subcontractor’s work. “Because we conclude that ECI did not qualify as an additional insured with respect to the pipe damage and that Bolduc cannot be required to indemnify ECI without violating Minn. Stat. §337.02, we reverse,” the high court wrote in its opinion, reversing the appeals court’s decision in Engineering & Construction Innovations, Inc., v. L.H. Bolduc Co., Inc.

In an amicus curiae brief filed on Jan. 13, 2012, ASA urged the Minnesota Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s decision and protect construction firms from being forced to pay for damage for which others on construction projects are at fault. “The Court of Appeals erred in its interpretation of the indemnity clause in the ECI/Bolduc subcontract,” ASA wrote. “This Court should correct this error by holding ... that the Bolduc/ECI indemnity clause did not include ECI’s own fault or negligence, but only extended to the fault or negligence of Bolduc for which ECI may be liable.”

L.H. Bolduc was a subcontractor on a sewer and water project. During the construction process, the sewer pipeline suffered damage at the direction of the general contractor. The general contractor repaired the pipeline and then sought reimbursement from the subcontractor and the subcontractor’s insurance company. Both refused.

At trial, a jury sided with the subcontractor, saying the subcontractor was not negligent. After the verdict, a district court also found that the subcontractor was not required to indemnify the general contractor from damages the general contractor suffered due to its own negligence and that the insurer similarly did not agree to provide insurance against anything other than claims arising from the subcontractor’s work or negligence. But on appeal, a court issued a split decision, holding that the subcontract’s indemnity clause required the subcontractor to “both indemnify for another’s negligence and insure that risk.”

The dissenting judge in the case noted that Minnesota’s anti-indemnity statute prohibits the subcontractor from indemnifying the general contractor for its own negligence and concluded that the subcontract did not clearly and unambiguously require that the subcontractor indemnify and insure the general contractor for the general contractor’s negligence.

ASA noted in its brief that Minnesota state legislators and courts enacted the state’s anti-indemnity statute specifically to curtail risk-shifting and make parties responsible for their own — not others’ — mistakes: “The legislative history of Minn. Stat. §337.02 reflects the Legislature’s determination that the prohibition of such broad form indemnity clauses would lead to greater safety in the workplace. The anti-indemnity statute also recognizes the imbalance in bargaining power that exists between contractors and subcontractors, which leads to unfair subcontract terms, including broad form indemnity … Thus, there is a strong public policy, emanating from both case and statutory law, in favor of making each participant in a construction project responsible for its own negligence or fault.”

ASA’s Subcontractors Legal Defense Fund (www.sldf.net) financed the brief in this case.

Founded in 1966, ASA amplifies the voice of, and leads, trade contractors to improve the business environment for the construction industry and to serve as a steward for the community. The ideals and beliefs of ASA are ethical and equitable business practices, quality construction, a safe and healthy work environment, and integrity and membership diversity.